"Jinx" is an episode of JAG that first aired on January 17, 1997. Directed by Jerry Jameson.Written by Jack Orman.
Naval aviators believe their squadron is cursed because they once bombed a mosque in Iraq. One by one, everyone who participated in that attack dies in a strange accident on a holy day on the Islamic calendar.
The episode starts with Lt. McKee (Francia Dimase, previously seen on the Season 1 episode "Pilot Error") hitting a flock of birds during a routine flight practice mission.
Lt. Commander Rabb, Major MacKenzie and Lt. Roberts are sent to California to investigate. On another routine flight, Lt. Vanderway (Judson Mills) and Lt. Ayers (Charles Esten) run into unexpected bad weather and suffer a very unlikely thunder strike to an engine. After a rough carrier landing, Vanderway says he doesn't want to fly with Ayers again. Ayers was the RIO who armed, aimed and fired the missile in the mosque incident.
Rabb finds himself falling in love with Anne Pendry (Daphne Ashbrook), whose husband, Lt. Luke Pendry (Clayton Norcross), is now said to have died because of the curse. Mac shows up at Anne's residence to tell Rabb that Ayers turned in his wings and Roberts followed the jittery aviator to a California mosque.
Rabb confronts Ayers at the mosque. It wasn't his fault that the enemy set up surface-to-air missiles in front of the mosque. Now Ayers had better fly the "missing man" in the missing man formation for McKee's funeral. But no one wants to fly with Ayers, especially since McKee's funeral is scheduled on an Islamic holy day. Rabb volunteers to fly with Ayers.
The funeral is appropriately solemn and the fly-over goes exactly as planned. Ayers suggests to Rabb that they skip the tanking practice and go straight back to the carrier. But Rabb insists they must do everything normally, to prove there is no jinx.
Unfortunately, there's some unexpected turbulence when trying to connect to the tanker plane, and the tanker's "basket" hits the F-14's canopy, shattering the glass and injuring Rabb dangerously close to his right eye. Rabb can still see ahead, but can't look down at his instrument panel. Rabb refuses Ayers's suggestion that they should eject.
Ayers doubts Rabb can make it back to the carrier, so he requests a reroute to Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. Rabb is able to land safely at El Toro, where he is promptly attended to by paramedics. Ayers discovers a shard of glass under his seat's ejection pin. If they had tried to eject, Rabb might have made it out but Ayers would have been hopelessly stuck.
After Ayers tells Rabb about the shard, Rabb declares his willingness to fly with Ayers anytime: Ayers is "untouchable."
Tropes
- Agent Mulder: Roberts is willing to consider that there may really be a curse on the squadron.
- Agent Scully: Rabb wants to prove that the jinx is not real and is willing to risk his life to do so.
- Coming in Hot: Vanderway and Ayers in their F-14 after the unexpected thunder strike.
- Dead Person Conversation: Rabb has a somewhat one-sided conversation with Lt. Luke Pendry, who describes what it's like to die in an accident in the air. The dead aviator also asks Rabb if he's serious about Annie. When Rabb wakes up on Annie's couch, he notices a framed photo of Lt. Luke Pendry on a table next to the couch.
- Due to the Dead: A Missing Man Formation for Lt. McKee's military funeral.
- Infodump: Roberts explains to Mac that practicing tanking is common after a missing man formation. The viewers probably don't know this, and it wouldn't make much sense for Rabb or Ayers to give the explainer, since they're both familiar with standard flight ops. But Mac doesn't know this, and it makes sense that Roberts, who served aboard another aircraft carrier, would know this and explain it to Mac and, of course, to the viewers, who would otherwise be confused by an aerial refueling before returning to the carrier.
- Insignia Rip-Off Ritual: Ayers is said to have "turned in his wings."
- Playing Pictionary: Rabb makes animal-shaped pancakes for Anne and Josh at breakfast. One of the pancakes is supposed to look like a pterodactyl, but Anne says it looks like a cow. Anne leaves and then Roberts shows up, and also identifies that pancake as a cow.
- Shout-Out:
- To Star Trek: Vanderway's call sign is "Spock," after Commander Spock, one of the original series characters.
- To Tales from the Crypt, pressed into service as a synonym for "jinx," "hex," "curse."
